Friday, May 18, 2012

A new way to store vaccines

U.S. Army Major
Jean Muderhwa of the Brooke Army Medical Center/San Antonio Military Medical
Center has developed a ‘microemulsion’ that he hopes will prove useful in
stockpiling vaccines. He presented
his findings at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting.

An emulsion is a
mixture of liquids that don’t ordinarily mix. The application of energy causes
one liquid to form stable droplets that are dispersed throughout the other
liquid. For example, many cosmetics contain a mixture of oil and water, plus
other ingredients. Milk is an emulsion of butterfat globules and water.
Microemulsions simply contain very tiny droplets that are less than 100 nm across.

Muderhwa’s micoremulsion
is composed of five ingredients: water, oil, glycerol, surfactants (chemicals
that lower the surface tension of liquids making them more ‘mixable’) and a protein
adjuvant, a molecule that makes a body’s response to vaccines more potent. In
other words, the emulsion is specifically designed to carry vaccines.

The system hasn’t been tested for vaccines yet, although microemulsions
are currently used to deliver other kinds of drugs. If all goes well, this new concoction can be used not only for the delivery of vaccines, but also for long term storage until the vaccines are needed.

US Army Major Jean M. Muderhwa's microemulsion vaccine carrier.Courtesy of US Army Major Jean M. Muderhwa

Stochastic Scientist? What's up with that?

Why the Stochastic Scientist? As I'm sure you all know, 'stochastic' is another word for 'random', which is what I intend for the focus of this blog. Although my formal training is as a molecular biologist, there are many other fields of science that are also fascinating and beautiful. It's my intention to blog about which ever scientific discovery or invention catches my, and hopefully your, fancy.

I also hope to inspire people to learn more about science. By choosing among a huge variety of scientific endeavors, I'll undoubtably hit upon something that will pique my readers' interest.

I guess I could have called my blog 'The Joy of Science', but that wouldn't have been quite so random.